Culture & discovery
Cyprus

UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980, on the site of the city that was the capital of Cyprus from the 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD. The mosaic floors of the Houses of Dionysos, Theseus, Aion and Orpheus are its highlight.

Hellenistic and Roman underground necropolis carved out of solid rock, part of the UNESCO-listed Kato Paphos Archaeological Park. Despite its name, it held high-ranking officials and aristocrats rather than kings, and some tombs imitate the layout of houses.

Remains of one of the most important city-kingdoms of ancient Cyprus, overlooking the Kouris valley and destroyed by an earthquake in 365 AD. Visitors see the Greco-Roman theatre, which hosts summer performances, the House of Eustolios with 5th-century mosaics, the agora and a basilica.

Neolithic village listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998, on a hill in the Larnaca district, 32 km from Larnaca along the Nicosia–Limassol motorway. Five circular dwellings have been rebuilt nearby using Neolithic methods and materials.

Group of ten churches and monasteries inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, whose murals give an overview of Byzantine and post-Byzantine painting in Cyprus. They include Panagia tou Araka, Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis and Agios Ioannis Lambadistis.

Monastery on a mountain peak at 1,318 m, founded according to tradition with the support of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who sent it an icon of the Virgin attributed to Saint Luke. Burned several times, it houses this silver-gilt icon and a museum.

Fortress built in the 13th century and rebuilt in its present form in the 15th, Grand Commandery of the Knights of St John after 1291. The Knights made Commandaria sweet wine here, and the ruins of a 14th-century sugar mill stand alongside.

The island's main archaeological museum, in a building constructed between 1908 and 1924, tracing Cypriot civilisation from the Neolithic to the Early Byzantine period. The collections, displayed chronologically, include pottery, jewellery, sculpture and the Aphrodite of Soloi.